Xbox 360 to get better brain

The Xbox 360 will go into the operating theatre early next year to have a brain transplant that’ll increase its speed and reduce its propensity for game-crashing hot flushes.

According to a report from VNU, the new chip will lower the console’s heat and power consumption, as well as increasing its speed.

Although our Xbox 360s have behaved admirably, there were several reports of early units crashing mid-game thanks to overheating, which Microsoft described as ‘isolated’.

The 360 uses a combination of fans and heat pipes to keep the console from expiring under its Sahara climate, and the new CPU should lower the Xbox’s internal temperature to a pleasant, sun-bathing level.

It’s unlikely that new games will take advantage of the slight increase in processor speed, though, as this can apparently cause compatibility issues with old games.

The new CPU will also apparently be cheaper to make, but this probably won’t cause a price drop – Microsoft built the first 360s at a loss, so would understandably like to see some profit for its toil.

Microsoft hasn’t yet made an official announcement on the news, but the new batch of 360s are expected in early 2007.